The coffee flavour wheel

Every taste possible!

Alright this week is all about flavours! Prepare for alot of photos in this one and some quick descriptions.

A quick TLDR, the coffee flavour wheel is a list of tastes that can be found in coffee that are all sectioned into larger categories of taste sensations. Going clock-wise around the wheel and starting at the top we have…

Fruity

The fruity category covers all tastes from citrus to dried berries and all other fruits you can think of, these include; coconut, apple, grapefruit and peach among many more.

Sour/Fermented

This category has a range of common to rare tastes found in coffees as sour flavours such as lemon citrus is quite common, whereas more fermented flavours such as winey notes are only caused by the fermenting process on coffee beans before roasting and this process isn’t as common as natural or washed.

Vegetal

Vegetal flavours are usually found in lighter roasted coffees as the beans are closer to the green state there in before roasting. Green and light roasted coffee tastes raw and vegetal with similar flavours such as peapod and herb-like.

Other

This category is split between two sub categories of chemical and papery, all of these flavours are usually seen as unfavourable with tastes ranging from woody/stale to rubbery and petrol!

Taste causes:

Woody/Rubbery - Can be found in Robusta coffee and dark roasts.

Stale - Off flavour found in coffee thats left poorly stored.

Petrol - Found when the beans in transit have been exposed to petrol in poor transporting standards.

Roasted

The roasted category of flavours contains negative flavours such as tobacco and ashy which are caused by the roasting process. The roasting also causes alot of cereal and grain flavours which are very noticeable when the coffee is brewed only a few days after roasting.

Spices

This section is simply just the range of spices you would find in cooking such as anise and cinnamon, these flavours are found in coffees all around the world and are sometimes super desirable but in some cases can be a big no no.

Nutty/Cocoa

This category is tiny as it mainly just contains nuts such as hazel nuts and almonds, and milk chocolate to dark chocolate. This flavour profile is commonly found in coffee grown in brazil.

Sweet

Sweet flavours found in coffee mainly surround molasses and honey, both of which are caused by the Millard reaction that takes place during roasting. Other flavours such as vanilla are naturally occurring from the origin of the bean.

Floral

Floral flavours are usually describing tastes such as rose and jasmine but can even cover black tea as well, these flavours are often associated with coffees that have been processed using the washed method.

This has been a long one this week but hopefully its been informative on the kind of flavours you can expect to see as descriptors on the bags of coffee you buy, hope you have a great week and some even better coffees!